J. A. Jance’s ‘Cold Betrayal’ Brings Serious Social Issues To Light

J. A. Jance (Photo courtesy Mary Ann Halpin Studios)

J.A. Jance doesn’t hold back any punches in her latest novel, Cold Betrayal.

From the beginning, I was instantly captured by Betsy, Athena’s grandmother. Betsy is a feisty widow who can take care of herself but soon realizes that someone is trying to kill her.

Everyone around her feels she is becoming senile, but Betsy knows better. She takes matters into her own hands by telling Athena, who in turn enlists the assistance of her mother-in-law, Ali Reynolds, to find her killer.

While Ali is gathering information on who might want to kill Betsy, her dear friend, Sister Anselm, a nun and patient advocate, asks her to find out the identity of a young, pregnant woman hit by a car in a remote part of Arizona.

Touchstone

Clues lead to The Family, a polygamous cult in which leaving is not an option. Cold Betrayal takes the reader down a dark, chilling road of human trafficking, violence against women and abuse of the elderly.

Jance examines how humans can be so hateful and unjust in their treatment of one another and yet paces the novel in such a way the action and storyline never lose their momentum.

Readers will undoubtedly keep turning pages, anxious to see how the story culminates in a satisfying climax. Cold Betrayal is certainly worth the paper it is written on!

COLD BETRAYAL
By J.A. Jance
352 pps. Touchstone. $25.99.